Massachusetts Walmart has 81 cases of COVID-19 among employees

Additional cases of COVID-19 have been discovered at a Massachusetts Walmart.

According to the City of Worcester, a total of 391 employees at the Walmart at 25 Tobias Boland Way in Worcester were tested for COVID-19 on Thursday, April 30 and Friday, May 1.

Of the 391 employees tested this week, a total of 58 tested positive and 333 tested negative. The initial outbreak announced earlier this week had 23 positive employees. Overall, 81 employees have tested positive for COVID-19.

The first employee at the location tested positive on April 8.

There have been rumors of cases of the coronavirus at many Massachusetts Walmart locations, however, when contacting Walmart officials, they refused to answer if that was the case.

During an inspection of the Worcester location on Tuesday, officials found that not all employees were wearing masks or face coverings while working and customers were seen shopping without them.

After the city got involved, the location was forced to shut down and Walmart Worcester issued the following statement.

“Now more than ever before, customers are relying on Walmart for the essentials they need for their families, and our associates are doing heroic work serving their communities. Our community is currently suffering from a high rate of coronavirus cases. Out of an abundance of caution, we will temporarily close our store on Thursday, April 30th to allow extra time for third-party specialists to further sanitize the store. It will also give our associates additional time to restock shelves and prepare the store to once again serve the community during this unprecedented time. We’ll be sure to notify you as soon as our store is safe to re-open.”